Hello there! I see you've found this profile. No doubt you've come here looking to read something. Well, if you're interested, I'm going to share my first story with you. This is a site for story-tellers, right? Good...then read on if you wish. But BE WARNED...it gets a little strange.

When I was around ten or twelve years old, I wrote. I don't know what prompted the hours spent locked in my room, typing away at stories I'd created. Probably just pure inspiration. Here's how it went: I'd take some of my favorite characters from my beloved cartoons and place them into these harrowing situations. Or I'd set them up for a very cute and very romantic moment...oo-la-la! Thing is, I NEVER told anyone because I thought they'd make fun of me. Or they'd say, "HEY! Those aren't your characters! YOU'RE STEALING!" Funny, right? Well...not so much.

When I got to be around fourteen I blossomed in areas like Reading and Writing...which made perfect sense to me. I mean, I'd been doing it for so long now it seemed like a walk in the park. I loved playing the clarinet too.

Between the ages of fifteen and sixteen my creativity plateaued. I'd like to refer to this chapter of my life as "The Nightlock." You'll understand why in a moment...

I'd wake up, go to school, play my instrument along with my amazing band friends and look forward to concerts or marching band competitions. Then I'd go to sleep...and I'd dream. And boy, would I dream. I dreamt SO much, that I bought this stupid book that can "interpret" parts of dreams. The dreams kept coming. And the weird part was, I could recall them clearly! Each and every one! It wasn't like memorable stuff wasn't happening in my life to cause such intricate dreams. Crazy shit still went down, I just wanted so badly to figure out how it all correlated to subconscious thought...to my nightly dreams.

I soloed twice my senior year in our school's spring concert after putting my blood, sweat and tears into practicing for hours and hours AND HOURS. When I stepped up to the microphone, I could feel the music coursing through my brain as if I was already playing it, and I closed my eyes a moment. To breathe...because I was very nervous. Still, I could feel a difference that time. It was as if I'd grown tired of my own procrastinating bullshit. I was ready. And apparently, people loved that! The applause felt so much better compared to that forced clapping people do after suffering through bad music. Strangers approached me with compliments and referrals to music schools. I was on cloud nine...and then I graduated. Welcome to the real world.

Either way, let us backtrack a bit, back to when I was seventeen (still in high school). A fun way of bonding with people was to tell them stories. And I loved hearing theirs too! A good writer keeps their sources wide and plenty, am I right? The stories I shared mostly consisted of me recounting the dreams I'd had to my trusted friends. I hadn't written for a long time but I was starting to get back into it.

And then WHAM! It was like I was struck with a bolt of inspirational lightning. I discovered these amazing shows, movies and video games that I was now old enough to appreciate and draw actual meaning from. While none of these really hold a candle to my favorite childhood show (Avatar the Last Airbender) I could still rate them among the highest out there. So I wrote more and more drafts of unfinished stories and one-shots, even creating some original stories of my own making. Then I got to be eighteen and I realized...wait a minute! There are entire websites out there FULL of people like me, who write stories just for fun! Some are just cute, fluffy one-shots while others are GORY SAGAS that make you say, "WOW. I'M GLAD I DON'T LIVE IN THAT UNIVERSE!" Then you read stories that make you think about your own life...those are my favorite. Stories you can take something away from...that's really why people tell stories isn't it? The morals and the life lessons...and it's all awesome.

I dream every night now and I can recall (with some effort) whatever happened in said dream. I'm able to pull meaning from these dreams and think back to real-life events that caused certain things or items to appear. And I just had this crazy one...and then I thought, what if those characters from that one show lived out my crazy dream?! The plot basically wrote itself and I began working on the story.

So, this is me now. Professional dreamer, quasi-talented musician and part-time writer. Hopefully - with the more dreams I have - I'll be able to mold them into future stories. In other words, if you've come to like my work, worry not! There's no lack of creative ideas or inspiration in this mind of mine. In essence, the "Nightlock" I referred to earlier may be a toxic berry from the Hunger Games, but to me it means something else. It reminds me to lock in those dreams I have at night, so I can recall them later for future reference. I think of Nightlock not as a noun, but as a verb; to lock in one's thoughts and dreams for future recollection.

During a time in my life when my attempts at writing well proved fruitless, Nightlock inspired me to keep on writing, and if I want to become an author one day, I'll need criticism. That's why I joined this site. To get all of the criticism I can so I can grow and build upon my mistakes as a writer. So hopefully in the future while I reminisce the days when I wrote with existing characters, I'll construct my own original characters and successfully incorporate them into a story of my own making!

For those of you who actually read this story about a dreaming musician, I implore that you continue to read and write as well. And if you don't think you can do something, change that perspective of yourself. Practice until your body hurts and your mind is hazy. How do you think I even got through those two solos in high school?? Near CONSTANT practice until that tune was all my ear-bug played. Even now, months after I've performed that piece, it's still under my fingers. I have it locked away in my brain so I can access it any time I want. Remember to treat your body like a temple. It's the only one you've got, and that includes your mind...don't starve yourself of progress simply because you're in a rut. You'll start having never-ending dreams like me! The only bad thing about remembering all of your dreams is that it includes nightmares.

Around seventeen I also went into the medical field and involved myself with EMS. Some of the calls I've been on...I can easily relate to nightmares. Hopefully I can graduate as an EMT soon, that way I won't be so shell-shocked on bad calls anymore. My life may sound easy and smooth...but it's quite the opposite. Instead of breaking down, I simply adjusted my tires so I won't crash on the rocky stretches. Plus I mean, I prefer walking anyway...

So a message from me: keep on dreaming! Just remember to wake up, because life is NOT a dream.

-Nightlock

WOW THAT TOOK FOREVER LET'S KEEP IT GOING. What do we have in common??

Favorite Shows: Stranger Things, Avatar the Last Airbender, Teen Titans, The Walking Dead, Orange is the New Black, Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, NCIS.

Favorite Color: Green as the grass.

Favorite Movies: Kubo and the Two Strings, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Incredibles, Brave, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole, Saving Private Ryan, Inception, Pirates of the Caribbean (Trilogy ONLY).

Favorite YouTuber: DashieGames/DashieXP. Check him out he's hilarious!

Favorite Video Games: The Walking Dead (TellTale), Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas, Friday the 13th, Sims 2 Castaway.

Favorite Books: The Book Thief, The Seekers Series, Tales of the South Pacific, Dean Koontz/Stephen King Novels, All the Light We Cannot See (GO READ THIS BOOK YOU WON'T REGRET IT), The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

Favorite Actresses: Sandra Bullock, Samira Wiley, Charlize Theron, Jodie Foster, Millie Bobby Brown, Wynona Rider, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kristen Wig.

Favorite Actors: Robert Downey Jr., Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Keanu Reeves.